a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spark-recording type printing method wherein a record obtain through the spark-recording process is employed as the master in performing offset printing, coupled with a spark-recording material for use in said printing method.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Various plates including (1) zinc and aluminum plates for use in lithoprinting, (2) PS plates and (3) electrophotographic sensitive materials have been employed in offset printing. Among these conventional plates, the plates of Class (1) above being to the category of the general printing and can be utilized as masters only after various complicated processes of plate-making. PS plates of Class (2), though the plate-making process therefor is somewhat simplified, still require considerable time for operation so that they cannot be utilized as masters in geneal office work. The materials of Class (3), while they can be prepared by utilzing general electrophotographic copying machines and therefore can be processed simply for general office work, are not totally satisfactory because the machines for their preparation require too much space.
In the field of facsimile recording, images have been produced rather simply on various spark-recording materials, such as the type consisting of a colored support having a layer of metal deposited thereon through vacuum evaporation. However, the materials and images produced are defective in that they cannot be utilized to produce a large number of copies.